


Brothers

by Nny11



Series: Close But No Cigar [9]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Ahsoka was Yoda's Apprentice AU, Close but No Cigar AU, Family Bonding, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Gift Fic, Gift Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:49:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21949867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nny11/pseuds/Nny11
Summary: After Ahsoka leaves the Jedi Order, Anakin takes her home to heal and learns a bit about his new family in the process.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker & Zanzi Tano
Series: Close But No Cigar [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/626120
Comments: 6
Kudos: 97





	Brothers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Galaxaria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Galaxaria/gifts).



> Happy Hanukkah [Galaxaria!](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Galaxaria/pseuds/Galaxaria) I know we said we didn't need to post until the 27th, but I'm a little pumped and hyped up from all my holiday shenaniganry today. I felt like I was gonna explode if I didn't send this out since it's been staring at me for a few weeks now. Hope you enjoy!
> 
> To anyone new to this series, you will want to at least read [Ghosts](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14864568) before reading this fic. It will make more sense with at least some background and context!

Anakin sighed, leaning back heavily and staring up at the sky. Above Shili the stars nearly took over the black of night, strips of white showing one of the galaxies arms in glorious detail. It was beautiful, but he wasn’t here for the view. Anakin shifted his gaze until he found it. Arkanis, then Tatoo.

He was glad they were here, Ahsoka needed this and more importantly  **deserved** it.

He still felt his heart ache as he looked up at his distant home.

“Ah-nee?” 

Anakin flinched, then winced at his flinch. Zanzi was...interesting. His yellow ocher coloration was beautiful and unique, and when he did smile it was a wonderful one. Zanzi was soft jokes and gentle looks and serious in his dedications. In another lifetime Anakin thinks they would have been friends. Could have been at least. In this world, where they were so far at odds? He wasn’t sure. It didn’t feel hopeless. More like he was helpless to move them forward through the invisible minefield he was certain lay between them.

“Ah-nee khan? You here?” Zanzi’s voice was smooth, but before long turned into a series of squeaks and clicks in irritation.

Anakin snorted, it was so like Ahsoka that he forgot about being quiet.

“Ah! Found you!” Zanzi stepped easily around the long grasses until he was standing in the small clearing Anakin had been hiding in. 

“Hey Zanzi,” he tried to be open, to be warm. But couldn’t find it in him to be enthusiastic. That was more Ahsoka’s speed anyways.

They’d started butting heads almost on day one. Their arrival had been heralded with horns and shouts and tears, everyone focused on Ahsoka until Zanzi had come and swept her up into a hug. Their mother had smiled up at him from the dirt where she was kneeling still, tears rolling down her face as she smiled and trilled.

_ “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” _ She’d said, but more importantly Anakin had felt it through the Force. A ripple from where her very mild Force sensitivity touched the universe.  _ “My daughter, thank you.” _

Years and years before Anakin had asked Obi-Wan how Ahsoka ended up at the Temple and had stepped into a pile of poodoo as he hit one of the Jedi Order’s many hidden trip wires. Properly chastised he hadn’t asked Ahsoka for a few more years after that. It was with the two of them stuck on Felucia, jammed down into the dirt to rest while they could that Anakin had poked Ahsoka awake to ask. His head had been buzzing and heart burning, he didn’t know if it was him or the Force, but he’d needed to know. She seemed unbothered to tell him, and he’d swelled with pride at that. A fear he hadn’t even been aware of washing away as she spoke. He was close enough, they were close enough to share. He’d been horrified to learn about the slaver, he’d been furious at her village for years. Ahsoka had snapped at him when he’d derided her family for giving her up so cheaply. They hadn’t spoken of it since, only their short talk in the taxi to remind him that these people were important to her.

Away from the war, with his head clear and heart less shaded Anakin was ashamed of the way he’d so easily dismissed them. The way he’d painted them into villains when they were just people.

So that first day, he’d bowed and helped Ashaaza to her feet, pressing back into her skin.  _ “Always, always, always.” _

It didn’t make up for his thoughts, but it was a start and he was dedicated to seeing it through.

The four of them had returned to Ahsoka’s home. A beautiful spiral hut with a thick purple blanket over the door. He squinted in the sunset trying to see as much of the geometric shapes painted onto the walls as he could before they’d made it inside. It was one room, with a loft, a small oven on one side and a shrine of some kind of the other. A roughly carved statue stood with one hand lifted and a sword in the other, food and incense and drink around it’s feet. Copper and beaded necklaces around its neck. Anakin could feel the lingering mix of emotions on it. A potent mix of hope and fear and dread and love.

“Ashaaza made this.” Zanzi had said as Ahsoka gingerly explored, her mother hovering at her shoulder and speaking lowly to not distract her. “Good protection, no?”

Anakin had nodded, understanding what he meant. Shmi regularly prayed for his safety, the water shared and words traced into the sands.

“It is,” he agreed with a smile, “Thank you for thinking of her.”

Zanzi had nodded, wiping a few tears away before tilting the galaxy on its ear. “Yes. Thank you as well, go home now.”

Anakin stood in mute shock for a moment, before trying to explain, “I, uh, I’m with Ahsoka. I’m not leaving without her.”

Zanzi’s smile had vanished, his face going hard. “She is home. She does not need Jett’i. Go home.”

The joint insult, that he was somehow beneath them and that he was a Jedi had sent him bristling, desperately trying to cycle his shields to not flood anyone else. But Ahsoka was there in a heartbeat, a look of concern in her eyes before tugging on his arm. “Mom, Zizi, this is Ani. Anakin Skywalker. He’s...he’s my brother.”

Oh if she’d only known what a war she’d just begun.

They’d spent the first handful of rotations doing their best to remain polite in front of Ahsoka and the rest of the time silently glaring one another down, challenging one another to do something about their disquiet. What was a brother after all? Anakin didn’t want to deny Zanzi his blood tie, but if the other man was out to get him, Anakin would choose Ahsoka first always. Their small shadow war of glares and spats and inconvenience more frustrating than infuriating. It was stupid, he knew that, but he also couldn’t just lay down and let some near stranger usurp him!

But as with most things, as the days passed it had gotten better. The more they’d been forced to interact the more easily it had come. Anakin’s willingness to help had built more good will than he’d expected, with everyone but Zanzi who held himself apart whenever Anakin was there. No amount of soft pleas from Ahsoka or hard glares from Ashaaza seemed to soften Zanzi’s stance, but he had been nothing but polite the last few rotations.

Here in the clearing, with the stars twinkling and the feeling of Ahsoka’s joy ringing in the back of his mind, Anakin wished he could simply be homesick in peace.

“Star looking?” Zanzi asked, squatting down to look up with him. “Good time for it. See? Inara sets and Mamela rises.”

Anakin looked to the horizons out of instinct, looking where Zanzi pointed despite not being able to see the constellations. These were not his stories after all. Not the trickster god or the Grandmother, not the dragons or the sands.

“You know Mamela?” Zanzi asked and when Anakin reluctantly shook his head, he continued, “The listener, they never speak but learn all they can hear. Mamela keeps the stories. They are kind. Like Ahsoka.”

Anakin shifted uncomfortably on the ground, trying to figure out what the hell was happening. It was by far the strangest peace offering he’d ever been given. As if reading his thoughts, Zanzi sighed and sat down facing him.

“We are clan.” He said, shrugging slightly and lekku twitching with embarrassment. “I have not been hospitable.”

Ah. That made much more sense. Anakin sat up, crossing his legs to rest his arms on them. He hunched in more comfortably that way and it evened out their heights. “Family first, all is forgiven.”

Zanzi almost startled, staring for a moment before looking back towards the horizon. His head tilting as he finally looked Anakin in the eyes.

“Like that?” Zanzi asked, a small wry grin that looked so much like his sister that Anakin felt his eyes prickle with tears.

“Well,” he rubbed his fingers through the dirt before reaching for Zanzi’s arm and began tracing. Forgiveness, fortitude, and kin. The symbol for family that had once been separated but now reunited. The acknowledgement that there had been choice but so few as to be none. The recognition that they would someday part once more. The promise that they would remember. He didn’t pause as he ran his thumb over his tongue, gathering a small amount of moisture to seal the words. “Yes. Now it is.”

Zanzi nodded, gingerly taking his arm back as he squinted through the darkness at the protective mark. His eyes flashing blue and yellow as his head tilted.

Anakin nodded at his work, his own eyes too weak to still see it at this distance. “Kin.”

“Clan,” Zanzi chuckled and stood, one hand out to lift him. “Come. Ahsoka is like a mother hen, clucking about you getting lost.”

Anakin snorted as he accepted the hand up. “You should’ve seen the way she hovered in medical when I got hurt.”

They walked back together in silence after that, but Anakin did notice the way Ahsoka looked at Zanzi’s arm before smiling at him.

_ /Thank you Ani/ _

* * *

Anakin panted for breath, groaning before yanking his shirt off entirely to get cooled off. Even in the shade the pounding of the root vegetables for the village dinner was hard work. A celebration he’d been told to properly welcome them, now that they’d gathered all they needed. He’d seen an unholy amount of alcohol arrive the day before and at least four fat goats lead off to he assumed a ritual or slaughter.

Zanzi had poked him in the stomach with a laugh, “Help here, else fat like a'ardiyah you will be too!”

Zanzi stumbled as he traded out with a muscled young woman who had laughed at them both before setting the mallet pounding once more. His smile was wide as his eyes rolled, the young man drank greedily from a skin before passing it to Anakin. In his heat addled state, wondering how in the world anyone did this for hours on end, Anakin didn’t think twice about accepting it and drinking. It was as he passed it back that he caught Zanzi staring and laughed.

“See? I won’t get fat, much!” Anakin had laughed, patting at his chest and stomach. He’d worked hard most of his life to have the physique he had, showing it off wasn’t such a bad thing really.

“Meh,” Zanzi tilted his head side to side in what Anakin had learned was essentially a so-so hand motion, “We’ll see.”

The work took hours and by the time it was finally done Anakin was left staring at a lightly yellow bouncy substance. He wasn’t convinced it had been worth it, but the others seemed quite pleased so he kept his mouth shut. The two of them had been left recovering in the light breeze, sharing the skin between them when an older man approached them. 

“Banab'eso Tano! Eya! 'M'ao oa u batla.”

Zanzi had flushed, nervously glancing at Anakin before answering in high speak. Whatever he said only got a laugh from the man. He slapped them both on their shoulders before leaving.

“Uhm...what did he say?” Anakin asked, feeling like he’d clearly missed something.

Zanzi chirped before clearing his throat. “Mother is looking for us.”

It would be much later than night as he and Ahsoka sat beyond stuffed and happily listening to music that someone had routed through the village communicator that Anakin would ask her about it. Ahsoka had laughed at him, of course. “And you think I know because?”

“I don’t know?” He tried, grinning as he poked at her exposed back. “I was being hopeful Soka! Don’t ruin this for me!”

“Oh no!” She’d giggled before throwing herself backwards into him with more force than necessary, and nearly getting covered in blown chunks before Anakin got himself under control. 

“First of all rude. Second of all, Very Rude. And Third of all I can’t believe you’d do this to me!”

Ahsoka squirmed until she was lying face up in his lap, quirking one brow in a sneer. “Wow, it’s like you don’t even know me.”

The two had ended up half wrestling and half demonstrating their fancier moves right there for the village. He needed to defend his honor and a little bit of stomach ache was worth it! They only stopped when Ashaaza had finally arrived with one of her patented exhausted glares and a smile.

“Babies!” She said, head shaking with laughter. “My babies.”

The fact that they both immediately turned to one another to say, “Ooooo you’re a baby!” probably didn’t help their appearances.

* * *

“How did you get them?” Zanzi had asked as the two slowly traveled in a loop around the village checking their traps and cameras for game, predators, and unwelcome visitors.

“Get what?” Anakin asked, absentmindedly as he fiddled with the motion camera to make it a little more efficient.

“Art.”

Anakin blinked, before finally looking up. “Uh, sorry?”

Zanzi chuckled, pulling his shirt, of all things, off to point at the blue tattoos on his arm and chest. “Art!”

“Oh!” Suddenly Zanzi’s staring at the party made more sense.

Clones often got inked, and after having served side by side with his brother’s in arms, there was no way Anakin had ever had a chance of leaving without at least something. His upper arm was covered in binary, put on as small as possible to fit the full story of the dragon Leia in it. It had been his favorite growing up, the dragon rising up from the sands and sinking deep into the stones. Over his heart he’d had “kin” inscribed, he prayed as he applied oil to it, the only one of his tattoos that he’d had heal naturally. There was a star fighter on his chest, and Ahsoka had inscribed a word of power. Well, she’d drawn up the design after explaining what it was, and at his insistence had put one line of ink in before she’d nearly panicked and made Tipper take over again.

Anakin placed a hand on his chest, as if he could touch the ink though the fabric. “In the army. My vod did them for me, Ahsoka too.”

Zanzi nodded slowly and Anakin wasn’t sure if he’d quite understood. But when he came over and gently twisted his arm to see the one Ahsoka had done, Anakin could see the same word of power tattooed into Zanzi’s ribs. The swirling circular pattern would have been simple if not for the small dots and fine lines that nearly danced inside.

“ _ Protector _ ,” Ahsoka had explained, “ _ it suits you. You protect and are protected in turn, that’s why many togrutan shields are round it’s a circle. _ ”

Anakin grinned and nodded, Mochee had told him about Zanzi’s failed attempt to kidnap Ahsoka away from the village before the slavery took her, and about what he’d done to the slaver after. He highly approved but had made it a point not to say anything, unwilling to cause trouble. Now he was able to at least express the thought. “It suits you.”

“And you,” Zanzi had said, face stone and voice deadly serious. “Thank you. I saw you, on the holo, I saw the feed live. When she-”

He stopped, turning to look out across the red and white grasslands before swallowing hard and turning to face him again. “Thank you.”

Anakin’s eyes filled with tears as he nodded, his memory of that day still vivid and fresh. Not even a year ago, hell not even a half year ago. When he’d seen Ahsoka jerk as the blaster bolts hit her, screaming as Kix and Coric got her into the stasis pod. If he’d been even a second later she would be dead. She’d nearly been anyways, going in and out of a coma as she recovered in the bacta tanks.

Anakin shrugged, unsure how to say all the things swirling in his soul. The pain and gratitude and solemn joy. He pursed his lips before finally giving up and tapped at his heart hoping to express what little he could. “Kin.”

Zanzi’s laugh was wet but genuine. “Clan!”

* * *

“Your brothers are like magicians. Poof! And they disappear!” Ashaaza complained.

Anakin froze where he was, masking himself in the Force and sneaking to the edge of the house.

Ahsoka laughed, “It’s almost like they can sense their fate.”

He didn’t know where Zanzi was, but Anakin knew that tone all too well. His Commander had used it anytime a batch of shinies were about to run drills for the first time. She’d used it before throwing Rex off of walls and towers. She’d used it before pranking all of Aqua Squad. She’d used it right before throwing snowballs at his face. Anakin grinned. He was in for a helluva time apparently, and he honestly couldn’t wait.

“Hmph, Ahnee perhaps, Zanzi? Pah! He is not half as clever as he thinks!”

“You never know, Ani might teach him something.”

“It is every mother’s blessing when their children learn from each other. Perhaps not this time, eh?”

The two of them laughed and Anakin felt warm all over. Kin. Clan. Family. Family was whoever you chose, family was whoever you loved, and Anakin knew that his mother would be thrilled to learn of her new sister and her new son as much as she would be joyful to meet her daughter. Family.

Quickly wiping his eyes, Anakin swaggered around the corner and leveled a glare at Ahsoka’s innocently smiling face. “I sensed a great disturbance in the Force, a growing darkness of malicious intent.”

Ashaaza went silent and serious, but Ahsoka only turned up her “Oh me? I’m just a naive Padawan!” act which he couldn’t imagine who had ever fallen for it. Knowing full well that she’d used it to spectacular effect with anyone who hadn’t spent at least five minutes with her.

“How strange, I didn’t sense anything!”

“Perhaps you should meditate more then, center yourself and find yourself. I think you’ll find the evil there within you, you little plotty m’plotterson!”

“What?” Ahsoka feigned hurt, trilling in fake distress. “I have never plotted in my life!”

“Uh-huh.”

“Honest!”

Anakin looked at their mother, who looked so much like Obi-Wan (fond and exasperated and exhausted and amused) that he almost faltered before asking, “Who did she get this from mother? It wasn’t my side of the family!”

She laughed, “How shall we know? It is a mystery my son.”

Kin.

Clan.

Family.

**Author's Note:**

> Come scream with me on [tumblr](nny11writes.tumblr.com), I'm always accepting asks and prompts!


End file.
